Article: Projecting Boston Red Sox's Playoff Roster for Wild Card Series Against Yankees

[Nick John]

With the 2025 season officially over, the Boston Red Sox now have to plan their roster for the Wild Card round against their rivals, the New York Yankees. Rosters will once more be 26 players after they had expanded to 28 players for the month of September. With the Red Sox's 40-man roster now full at 40 players following the selection of José De León to start the season finale, the players available to be selected are now set in stone, barring a last-minute transfer of an injured player to the 60-Day injured list. With that in mind, we are now going to try and predict how the Red Sox roster may look for their Wild Card series against the Yankees.

Right away we’ll go through the obvious choices:

Outfielders:

Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, Masataka Yoshida, and Rob Refsnyder

Infielders:

Alex Bregman, Trevor Story, Romy González, and Nate Lowe

Catchers:

Carlos Narváez, and Connor Wong

Pitchers:

Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello, Lucas Giolito, Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Whitlock, Justin Slaten, Steven Matz, Justin Wilson, and Greg Weissert

That brings the Red Sox roster to 20 players, leaving just six spots available. The position players listed above should be obvious selections based on how manager Alex Cora has mostly used them over the final weeks of the season to secure a return to the postseason while dealing with injuries. As for the pitchers, Crochet and Bello have already been announced as the starting pitchers for games one and two, respectively, while the trio of Chapman, Whitlock and Slaten are locks, as they’re arguably Boston’s best three relievers. Matz has been solid since being acquired at the trade deadline, while both Wilson and Weissert have been dependable out of the bullpen for Cora. Giolito is the assumed Game 3 starter unless otherwise stated by the team.

Looking into the final six spots, it shouldn’t be a surprise if Boston decides to load up on bench players to prepare for any situation. Thanks to this series being just a best of three, the team won’t need to carry 13 pitchers and could instead get away with just 11 or 12 while allowing Cora to carry 14 or 15 position players.

With that in mind, we’ll first look to finish filling in the rest of the bullpen. With six relievers listed above, the Red Sox would have nine pitchers, leaving at most three spots available. Of the available choices, the Red Sox will select from Zack Kelly, Payton Tolle, Luis Guerrero, Isaiah Campbell, Jovani Moran, and Luis Perales. Chris Murphy has to wait 15 days before he can be added to any postseason roster due to being optioned before Sunday’s game. The Red Sox also have Connelly Early, Kyle Harrison and De León as options for a long man out of the bullpen. From that list, we can easily cross out De León, as he threw 6 2/3 innings on Sunday. As for Perales, Campbell and Moran, they are likely to be in Fort Myers as part of the taxi squad, but unless injuries happen are unlikely to be chosen. The most obvious picks would be Kelly and Tolle, with either Early or Harrison as the long man. In this situation, I’ll go with Early considering how he’s looked in his four starts with Boston. Kelly would be the next pick, as he’s been rather reliable since being recalled to Boston at the start of September, tossing 11 2/3 innings in that span while surrendering just four runs. Tolle should make the roster just from his fastball alone, as he reached triple digits tossing it out of the bullpen. If there’s anything that plays well in October, it’s velocity.

That would bring the list of pitchers up to 12 on the roster and a total of 23 players. The list of available choices for bench players includes Nick Sogard, David Hamilton, Nate Eaton, Jhostynxon Garcia, Kristian Campbell, and Ali Sanchez. Of the listed players, only Sanchez is not on the 40-man roster, but could be added and has been sent to Fort Myers as part of the taxi squad. The selection of position players is thin, and the likely choices to round out the bench and team would be Sogard, Hamilton and Eaton, who have been on the roster for most of the past month. Hamilton and Eaton are obvious choices for their speed and defensive versatility, and Sogard's ability to switch hit could make him a solid pinch-hitting option.

With that in mind, the roster would now look like this:

Outfielders:

Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, Masataka Yoshida, Rob Refsnyder, and Nate Eaton

Infielders:

Alex Bregman, Trevor Story, Romy González, Nate Lowe, David Hamilton, and Nick Sogard

Catchers:

Carlos Narváez, and Connor Wong

Pitchers:

Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello, Lucas Giolito, Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Whitlock, Justin Slaten, Steven Matz, Justin Wilson, Greg Weissert, Zack Kelly, Payton Tolle, and Connelly Early

Lineup-wise, it shouldn’t be a surprise if Cora decides to load the lineup with right-handed batters for the first two games of the series, as Max Fried is scheduled to start Game 1 and Carlos Rodón is likely to follow him in Game 2. Cora has two lefty killers on his roster and has not been afraid to use them to try and score early against left-handed starters. This trend should continue in the playoffs. I'd say this is a very likely iteration of the lineup that Cora could roll out at Yankee Stadium:

1) González – second base

2) Story – shortstop

3) Bregman – third base

4) Refsnyder – designated hitter

5 Duran – left field

6) Lowe – first base

7) Rafaela – center field

8) Abreu – right field

9)  Narváez – catcher

Overall, the Red Sox will be in for a tough series against the Yankees, as the two rivals will battle it out for a chance to advance to the Division Series and remain in the playoffs. It will surely be a back-and-forth affair over the best-of-three series, as two historic franchises will enter but only one will remain by the end. Hopefully, the roster Cora and the front office constructs will be the one that advances.

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[moonslav59]

I think Abreu is still rusty, so we may/should go with Yoshida at DH and Ref in the short RF in NY.

[Old Red]

Gio out with elbow problem! 🤭

[mvp 78]

 

[Nick John]

31 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

 

Yeah, I wrote this up last night following the season finale. Almost went back and edited this after the news broke but decided against it. 

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

 

Lose games 1 and 2 and it resolves itself.

Same if the Sox win them both, although only temporarily.  
 

But win only one of the first two and - Connelly Early? Or Kyle Harrison?

[dgalehouse]

14 minutes ago, notin said:

Lose games 1 and 2 and it resolves itself.

Same if the Sox win them both, although only temporarily.  
 

But win only one of the first two and - Connelly Early? Or Kyle Harrison?

A game three would become " All hands on deck ". 

[moonslav59]

I think Early would start game 3 and Harrison might get 2-3 IP, depending on how many IP we can get from Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Weissert & Wilson. 

Do or die game: all hands on deck.

[Nick John]

4 hours ago, notin said:

Lose games 1 and 2 and it resolves itself.

Same if the Sox win them both, although only temporarily.  
 

But win only one of the first two and - Connelly Early? Or Kyle Harrison?

Between the two I like Early getting the Game 3 start. Worse case you get 3-4 innings out of him before turning it over to the bullpen. 

[mvp 78]

16 hours ago, notin said:

Lose games 1 and 2 and it resolves itself.

Same if the Sox win them both, although only temporarily.  
 

But win only one of the first two and - Connelly Early? Or Kyle Harrison?

Early pitched on Saturday, so Thursday would be normal rest. He's been sharper than Harrison overall. Who knows what direction they'd go. 

[mvp 78]